Plaintiff/Lawyer Claims Company Knew Of A 'Deadly Design Flaw' Leading To Fuel Starvation

A rather bizarre and convoluted lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon seeks $10 million from Flight Design, Hillsdale Aero, and flight instructor James Scheibner for what the plaintiff says is a "deadly design flaw" relating to the fuel system in the CTSW and failure to properly inform him of that flaw. It is a 'deadly design flaw' that ANN has been heretofore unaware of...

In his complaint, Attorney Daniel A Bernath says he purchased a CTSW airplane from Hillsdale Aero. He says that Flight Design was aware of a design defect that could lead to fuel starvation if one wing tank was empty but the other contained more than about .8 gallons. He says he was not warned of this defect, but the fact that Flight Design altered the design of the fuel tanks in the CTLS airplane shows they were aware of the problem.

He says in his Light Sport certificate flight instruction, Scheibner did not warn him about the potential of fuel starvation in a low-fuel situation caused by fuel "sloshing" in the airplane wing tanks which gravity-feed the engine, despite what he says are several documented instances.

The incident in question stems from a flight on September 1 of this year in which Bernath's CTSW lost engine power, and landed short of Sisters Eagle Air Airport, Sisters, Oregon, according to the NTSBs preliminary report. The board said the light sport airplane was registered to, and operated by, the pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.  The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall and lower right fuselage during the accident sequence. The cross-country personal flight initially departed Coeur d'Alene Airport - Pappy Boyington Field, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, at an unknown time, with a planned destination of Sisters Eagle Airport. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.

The pilot provided a verbal statement to a deputy of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office following the accident. He reported departing Coeur d'Alene en route to Sacramento, California, and that he encountered strong head winds and low clouds during the flight. Subsequently, he landed at a private airstrip approximately 7 miles east of Sisters Airport to check the airplane's fuel levels. Estimating that he had sufficient fuel (apparently in error----E-I-C) for approximately 30 more minutes of flight, he departed for Sisters. As he approached the airport (5 to 6 minutes later) the engine "sputtered" and then stopped producing power, and he performed a forced landing into a field.

While the NTSB said in the report "The sport pilot was not injured," Bernath claims he actually was injured, physically and mentally.

He is seeking Special Damages of $94,000, General Damages of $1,000,000, Punitive Damages of $8,750,000, Triple Damages of $282,000 for unfair business practices, attorney fees and other costs. A reading of the suit produces more questions than answers and some of the data/claims appears to be rather questionable and the pilot/attorney fails to address the apparent issue involving his continued flight with a (according to his own statements) known low fuel state. ANN is looking into it and will report back...  

FMI: www.ord.uscourts.gov